> David: “I spent a week and a half prefishing — I worked really hard for this one. Have been in the hunt several times, so it’s nice to finish one off. Sometimes you wonder if you’re doing something wrong.”

> David: “I really think the big lake was too cold. …productive reefs out on Huron, but the water temp was only 62 degrees. At Drummond, the water was 68-70 degrees and that made a big difference.

> “That class of fish is really rare up here. I was fortunate to find it and that they were active in the afternoon. I don’t understand why, but it was a later-in-the-day bite.

> “I actually started the tournament on a jigging spot in the St. Joseph’s area [where] I was consistently getting 23-25 lbs. Caught a few, but ended up culling everything out at the big-fish spot. [On the final day] I pretty much spent the entire day in Drummond.”

Caught 2 casting a #7 Rapala Rippin’ Rap (redfire crawdad) on day 1. All 5 of his day-2 fish came making a 1/4-mile trolling pass with Reef Runner 600 Series Deep Little Rippers (cheap sunglasses and purple descent) in 8-12′:

> David: “My speed was 1.5 mph, but I was going into the current. These fish were sitting in the rocks and waiting for the current to wash the bait by…gobies there and other clouds of baitfish too.

> “…big boulders, so I wanted the crankbaits just above the bottom. Today I ran 4 boards to one side [!!] because all my bites were coming on the inside.”

> David: “On these big fish, getting them in the boat is everything…we only had 5 bites. I have the co-angler do most of the reeling. I kill the kicker and use the trolling motor…I’m a firm believer they can hear the kicker and then fight harder. Plus, there can be issues with prop wash. We put all 5 of our bites in the boat today.”

> “I caught every one of my fish on the new Berkley PowerBait The Champ Swimmer on a 1/2-oz Fusion19 Swimbait Jighead with a 6/0 hook. It’s a 4.6″ paddletail with high-definition printed sides. My best colors were black crappie, blueback herring and yellow perch.”

> “I was basically bass fishing in musky spots. Would cast into the thickest cabbage, snap the bait hard as I could to clear the cabbage, and they’d bite it on the fall. Was letting the bait freefall as fast as it possibly could, and they’d absolutely inhale it.”

> “I found this pattern the day before the tournament. I had one nip at my bait, so I threw back out there, ripped it through the cabbage and caught a 7-lber…spent the rest of my practice trying to find every strand of cabbage I could. Depending on the spot, it was between 8-16′. If it had rock + cabbage + current = it was an A+++ spot.

> “Had 3 hours to find every strand of cabbage possible in a 5-mile area. Once I found an additional 20-some spots, I had the confidence to run through all of them almost blind come tourney time. Can’t stress how much of an asset my Lowrance SideScan is…enabled me to find the cabbage quickly, and to be able to position my boat the perfect distance from the weededge….

> “My setup was a Thorne Bros 7′ 3” MH Predator spinning rod paired with an Abu Garcia Revo MGX spinning reel spooled with 10-lb Berkley Ultra 8 Carrier braid and a 15-lb flouro leader.

> “It’s kind of like taking first in that it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I wasn’t on the same class of fish as Kolb…my fish were all so close to the same size, so 2nd feels unbelievable.”

> “We were fishing a rock bar that sets up very similarly to a wing dam. We were pitching the new Northland Long Shank Fire-Ball Jig tipped with a full nightcrawler…working the base of the rock bar in 13-15′.”

> “We were making a 30-mile run to the St. Joseph’s channel. The current set up a lot like a wing dam. Today the wind shifted and shut down some of the current, but…I stayed there and grinded it out.”

> “These fish were native river fish. A 22-inch fish fights like a 30-incher in that river. And I’m not really much of a jig fisherman — I was out of my comfort zone — so those rods were a huge help.

> “To take a top 5 against this caliber of fishermen, I’m happy with that.”